Free Republic

The trade war between China and the United States isn’t a conflict that will remain confined to the economy. It’s a risky play in a new Cold War. -- Much has been written about the economic wisdom and potential effects of the Sino-American trade war. Yet few understand that the trade war is just one front in what we should view as the Second Cold War. China seems to be in the lead in developing and employing technologies like artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles, and 5G (which has extensive defense and intelligence system applications). Together, these technologies could create a strategic...

President Donald Trump berated New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, recounting a phone conversation he had with the economist while playing golf. “Two weeks ago, while speaking to a friend on his cell phone, I, unfortunately, ended up speaking to Friedman,” Trump said. “We spoke for a while and he could not have been nicer or more respectful to your favorite President, me.” Trump described him as Thomas “the Chin” Friedman and said he was “a weak and pathetic sort of guy.” He specifically criticized Friedman’s column noting the fear Trump would be re-elected because of his economic policies, even...

Privatizing Public Lands Doesn't Mean Building Shopping Centers 07/18/2019Gor Mkrtchian Protected public lands in the United States — including national forests, national parks, and similar areas — cover nearly 500,000 square miles, or 14 percent of the land area of the United States. The existence of these government-controlled lands gives the federal government immense power over much of the United States, and in some US states, the federal government controls a majorityof the land area. Thanks to the popularity of some public lands, known for their natural beauty, federal control of so much land nonetheless remains popular, and the idea of privatizing...

The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1969 moon landing. Most were 30 to 40 years past their expiration dates — possibly toxic, probably worthless. But to Lee Cantrell, who helps run the California Poison Control System, the cache was an opportunity to answer an enduring question about the actual shelf life of drugs: Could these drugs from the bell-bottom era still be potent? Cantrell called Roy Gerona, a University of California, San Francisco researcher who specializes in analyzing chemicals. Gerona...

ESPN honchos reminded staffers on Friday that on-air talent should avoid stories considered “pure politics” after Dan Le Batard slammed President Trump and his own "cowardly" network for not allowing employees to speak out. Le Batard, whose parents are exiles from Cuba, called Wednesday’s Trump rally "deeply offensive" because the crowd targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, with chants of “send her back.” ESPN allows its personalities to discuss politics when they cross with sports, such as players skipping White House visits and athletes kneeling during the national anthem. Employees, including Le Batard himself, were notified that the policy hasn’t changed...

The problem of government agents viewing horrific images and videos of child pornography on official Department of Defense computers has gotten so out of hand that bipartisan legislation has been introduced to curb the practice. Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) introduced legislation earlier this month meant to halt the epidemic of government employees viewing and sharing child porn over DOD networks and devices. According to a report in the Hill, the End National Defense Network Abuse (END Network Abuse) was introduced in the wake of in an investigation called “Project Flicker” carried out by U.S. Immigration and...

GateHouse Media and its publicly traded publisher New Media Investment Group is deep in talks to buy USA Today owner Gannett — a merger that would make America’s biggest newspaper chain even bigger, The Post has learned. The two parties had been previously reported to be in talks, but it was unclear until now that the deal was for the smaller Gatehouse to buy Gannett, which is already the biggest newspaper chain in the US by circulation. Fairport, NY-based GateHouse — which owns nearly 700 papers across 39 states, including 156 dailies like the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio — is...

Sen. Bernie Sanders is one of the many faces that make up the progressive left within the Democratic Party. HeÂ’s an unapologetic democratic socialist. He has an economic agenda that would cost us trillions of dollars. And heÂ’s staunchly pro-labor union. That is until his campaign staff starts making demands for better pay, right? Yeah, it seems so. The Sanders campaign has unionized and is demanding $15/hour for staff nationwide and so far the left-wing candidateÂ’s leadership is silent on the matter. You just canÂ’t make this up. The far left guy unionizes the staff, makes minimum wage hikes part...

The pace of companies moving production out of China is accelerating as more than 50 multinationals from Apple to Nintendo to Dell are rushing to escape the punitive tariffs placed by the U.S., according to the Nikkei Asian review. The trade war between the U.S. and China has dragged on for more than a year with 25% tariffs placed on $200 billion of Chinese goods. President Donald Trump is still threatening to slap duties on another $325 billion of goods. In wake of the intensifying battle, more and more companies announced plans or are considering shifting manufacturing from China. American...

Austin police are reaching out to the community to track down two suspects connected to numerous burglaries across Austin. Police are searching for two white men that have targeted around 40-50 food trucks since April. The men are going after clusters of food trucks throughout the city without a specific location, but appear to be tracking food truck parks, police say. Officials say downtown Austin and the area north of U.S. Highway 183 appear to be the main clusters, but there have been other targeted trucks. Police estimate the men have stolen several thousands of dollars including tablets, money boxes...

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The National Instant Background Check System numbers broke a new record for June of 2019. It is the highest number of background checks for any June since the system was created. There were 2,312,309 background checks done in June of 2019. The next highest June was in 2016, with 2,197,169. The number of background checks in the NICS system has been generally increasing for the life of the system. There are many reasons for this. The general population has been increasing. The number of guns being sold per capita has increased, especially when there have been political...

Over a year in, the trade war between the US and China has claimed its first corporate casualty: a large Indonesian textile maker which missed a dollar loan payment last week is putting a fresh spotlight on how the stress from the geopolitical conflict is roiling global credit markets. On Monday, S&P slashed its rating of dollar bonds sold by a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Duniatex Group (also known as Delta Merlin Dunia Textile) by six notches to CCC-, citing “significant liquidity challenges” after another group company missed a payment on a syndicated dollar loan that had matured on July 10....

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ALBANY – Signaling the controversy surrounding the bill, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo chose a Manhattan office building – instead of a farm upstate or on Long Island – to sign a law Wednesday providing expansive new employment rights for farm workers. The bill has been hailed by unions and Democrats in the Legislature for giving farm workers certain rights that have been long provided to employees in other sectors of the economy. But critics say the measure ignores the realities of how farms operate in the different seasons and that more farms will be forced to close. The federal government...

Investors did not like what they saw in Netflix’s second-quarter results. Shares of the company plunged by more than 11 percent in after-hours trading following the company’s release of data on new subscriptions that fell short of Wall Street expectations and company guidance. Netflix added 2.7 million subscribers in its second quarter, down from about 6 million new subscribers in last year’s second quarter and well below the 5 million or so expected. The company actually lost about 130,000 domestic subscriptions in the second quarter. Internationally, the company added 2.83 million subscribers, well below the consensus forecast of 4.81 million....

Joe Biden, who was vice president when President Obama reportedly fixed everything wrong with health insurance in America by signing Obamacare into law, just this week dusted off his old boss’s line at an AARP event, telling attendees, “If you like your health care plan, your employer-based plan, you can keep it. If you like your private insurance, you can keep it.” That same line coming from Obama’s mouth was awarded “Lie of the Year” by PolitiFact, but what’s important is it pits Biden, the alleged moderate, against his socialist competitors who are demanding nothing less than Medicare for All...

The city of Berkeley, California, is updating its municipal code to exclude gendered words like “manhole” and “manmade” in favor of more inclusive language, according to a new ordinance. The City Council voted Tuesday night to adopt the new ordinance eliminating “gender preference language” in its code. “Manholes” will now be called “maintenance holes,” “firemen” will become “firefighters,” “manmade” will be “artificial” and all instances of “men and women” will be replaced by “people.” Gendered pronouns, such as “he” and “she” will also be replaced with “they.” “There’s power in language,” the bill’s primary author, Berkeley City Council member Rigel...

Appearing on CNBC Wednesday, Canadian businessman and television personality Kevin O’Leary raved about the state of the U.S. economy , based on his more than 50 “Shark Tank” companies. “Most of the Sharks have a similar portfolio,” O’Leary told CNBC on Wednesday. “It’s an amazing index on America’s economy because they’re almost in every state, in every sector.” O’Leary along with investors Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner and Daymond John put up their own money on “Shark Tank” to buy stakes in start-ups looking for capital and influential business partners. “I can report to you, on a...

David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s digital currency project, says during a hearing in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that authorities in Switzerland will oversee data and privacy protections for its new cryptocurrency, Libra.But a spokesperson for the Swiss agency, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, says it has not yet been contacted by Facebook.Several senators who questioned Marcus on Tuesday express concern over Facebook’s reputation with data privacy.  Facebook said on Tuesday that Switzerland’s data protection agency will oversee data and privacy protections for its new cryptocurrency, Libra.But Facebook hasn’t reached out to the Swiss regulator, a spokesman for the agency...

Lying has always been a part of politics. But what we’re seeing today is extreme. Politicians’ falsehoods, eagerly parroted by celebrities, are aided by a media that, rather than acting as an impartial referee, has become an agency for Democrats and the political left. Here are the top three whoppers since President Trump took office that those sick with Trump Derangement Syndrome just won’t let go of. Trump’s Supporters Are Racist “Trump is, without question, a racist,” a senior writer at The Root named Michael Harriot, who identifies himself on his Twitter account as a “master race-baiter,” wrote recently in...